Facebook seeks exemption from Government's proposed hate speech laws

Facebook petitioned the Irish Government last year to exclude it from criminal liability under proposed laws against hate speech and hate crime. In 2019, the Government ran a public consultation ahead of plans to draft more robust laws against incitement to hatred, particularly on the internet and social media. Facebook, one of 57 groups which responded to the consultation, submitted that any strengthened laws against internet hate speech must contain a “carve out” to protect “intermediaries” from being held responsible for content published on their platforms. A roadmap for the hate speech legislation, which was released by the Department of Justice on Thursday, recommends it become an offence to share hate speech on social media, if the intention is to incite hated. This would apply to sharing other’s posts on Facebook and retweeting items on Twitter. However, any company accused of hosting hateful material should be able to defend itself by showing that it has measures in place to prevent dissemination of hateful material and was complying with those measures at the time, the report states. The company should also show it was unaware and had no reason to suspect the content could incite hate.  » Read More